


Pirates and Krayt Dragons

by FreakCityPrincess



Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Apparently Unrequited Feelings, Ar’alani is Fed Up, Ascendancy!Eli, Eli is the best babysitter, Eli unofficially adopts the navigators AU, Feelings Realization, Fluff & Angst, Gen, He is bffs with Vah’nya, M/M, Post-Treason, Storytelling, Updated with minor fixes, and we love him, he’s in love, many feelings, while he pretty much tolerates Ronan, who wouldn’t have a crush the size of Yavin on Thrawn amirite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-18 17:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21280163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakCityPrincess/pseuds/FreakCityPrincess
Summary: Eli noticed the collective spark of interest in the navigators’ eyes, and knew he couldn’t refuse even if he couldn’t think of anything to say. Ki’sree was bright, and very perceptive. If she found something interesting, it was guaranteed to pique the others as well.“I’ll certainly try my best. What kind would you like?”“I would like to hear a story of the genre they call romance.”Eli blinked. Surely he couldn’t have heard that right.In which the navigators ask him for a story, and Eli ends up revealing a lot more than intended.
Relationships: Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Eli Vanto
Comments: 15
Kudos: 86





	Pirates and Krayt Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> Eli Vanto is the best Dad. That is all. 
> 
> Also he is awkward and Sad TM please help him.
> 
> Update: some minor fixes!

Ever since Admiral Ar'alani had trusted him with the knowledge of what his work on the _Steadfast_ was really about, Eli had applied himself with a far greater level of commitment. Knowing that the future of the Chiss Ascendancy may well depend on the results he produced was enough of a motivation to get over the few crewmembers who still hadn't got used to the idea of a human among their ranks. Petty though it may be, Eli felt a twinge of quiet satisfaction when any of those arrogant Chiss had to refer to him by his restored rank, pronouncing the Cheunh words for _Lieutenant Commander_ with a bitter taste on their tongues. 

All was good, really. Better than before. Not only did Ar'alani place a greater degree of trust in him, he also wasn't the only human aboard, and certainly between the two of them Ronan was far less popular with the Chiss. Privately he wondered if Thrawn would make a habit of sending people to Ar'alani. The CEDF Admiral was finally convinced of Eli's usefulness, but the same couldn't be said of Ronan. Not yet. Eli figured it would be a long time coming, if the day came at all. 

By far the best part, however, of his tenure aboard the _Steadfast_, was the small circle of friends he'd managed to acquire. Ronan had to be included, of course, because Eli was assigned his handler and if not kept a close eye on, he'd doubtless do something that would result in him getting thrown out of an airlock. But Vah’nya and the rest of the navigators— they were good company. 

In fact, he was going to join them right now, after wrapping up his work for the day. Eli had been granted an honour that nobody but the Admiral got; he was allowed in the navigators' exclusive lounge. Va'hnya told him that the vote was unanimous. 

Still, Eli felt compelled to request permission at the intercom every time he dropped by. He was still a guest, after all. 

"Eli Vanto, requesting permission to enter," he spoke into the intercom. A second later, Ka'leen's mechanised voice chirped from the speaker. 

"Commander Eli'van'to, you don't have to keep asking. We gave you the door code for a reason." 

Eli smiled to himself. "Alright, I'll let myself in. Is Un'hee around?" 

The former Grysk prisoner was adapting well to life on board the Steadfast, but she always asked for him. Va'hnya had told him quietly one day that she found his presence calming, that it helped her forget the horrors she'd seen. Ever since then, Eli had cleared out a time on his schedule to ensure he got to speak with Un'hee on a regular basis. 

It had started with Un'hee, but soon enough he'd managed to acquire a dedicated following of young navigators whose eyes lit up when he told them stories from Lysatra, and toned-down versions of stories from the Chimera. Now, he regularly met with all of them in off-duty hours, and it was possibly one of the best things to ever happen to him. Even now, Vah’nya was at the helm, having taken over one of the others’ shifts so she could be present for Eli’s visit. 

"Eli'van'to!" exclaimed Un'hee over the speaker. "You're early!" 

Eli chuckled. "Yeah, finished up early today. I brought snacks for everyone."

There was a collective gasp of appreciation, before the door buzzed and slid open to admit him in. 

Eli held out the box of sweets he'd procured the last time they'd docked ship at a port. He had joined Ar'alani and another senior officer for a meeting with a clan leader of the world. They'd both eyed him suspiciously when he'd purchased an entire box's worth of colourful candies, but mercifully hadn't made the connection to the navigators or, if they had, not called him out on it. He was well aware that many in the fleet disliked his association with them. Treating children like children was apparently not a common practice among the Chiss. 

The navigators, however, were an unsurprisingly disciplined group of children, and each of them took only item from the box after sparing some time to consider the different coloured wrappings, chorusing polite thank yous as they did. More than three-quarters of the box was still full after everyone had taken their pick. Eli quietly the set the remainder down on the floor, nudging it under the low lounge table for storage. He’d leave it here, allow them to indulge whenever they liked. 

“Why don’t you take one, Commander Eli’van’to?” 

Eli shook his head with a small smile, settling back against one of the sofas. Like everything aboard the _Steadfast_, it was utilitarian, functional. No more comfortable than strictly necessary. “I’m good.” 

Ki’sree, one of the youngest navigators, edged closer to him on the sofa. “Do you have any stories for us today, Commander Eli’van’to?” 

Eli pursed his lips, considering. He could feel ten pairs of wide eyes track his every movement while he tried to think of if he had a story. 

“What kind of story would you like?” 

There were several eager responses. 

“Tracking smugglers!” 

“Lysatran folktales, please!” 

“Commander, could you show us more holos of the funny clothes humans wear on Coruscant?” 

“Number lesson!” 

Eli smiled sheepishly, wondering how he could’ve possibly forgotten how difficult it was to choose. He was mentally keeping count in the back of his head, trying to give every navigator a chance, but he pretty sure that he’d complied to everyone’s requests by now. 

He looked back again at Ki’sree, who hadn’t made a suggestion. 

“Well, you asked first. Do you have any ideas, Ki’sree?” 

Every pair of eyes drifted to Ki’sree, who coloured slightly under all the attention. Still, she bravely continued on. 

“Commander, I have been researching different kinds of stories. There are some kinds I had never heard of before. Could you tell us one of those?” 

Eli noticed the collective spark of interest in the navigators’ eyes, and knew he couldn’t refuse even if he couldn’t think of anything to say. Ki’sree was bright, and very perceptive. If she found something interesting, it was guaranteed to interest the others as well.

“I’ll certainly try my best. What kind would you like?” 

“I would like to hear a story of the genre they call romance.” 

Eli blinked. Surely he can’t have heard that right. 

“Uh...come again?” 

But the navigators were already fired up. 

“What is that, Ki’sree?” 

“I have never heard of that!” 

“Are there pirates?” 

“Commander, what is _romance_?” 

Eli wanted nothing more than to melt through the floor in embarrassment, but he held onto his resolve. If there was one thing he didn’t want to be discussing with kids, it was that. Children anywhere, whether they came from Lysatra or a Core World or the Chiss Ascendancy, tended to react in distaste or horror upon the mention of any traditional romantic elements. He’d been there himself; as a child of ten, wincing as his older cousin talked in great detail about his exploits with a girlfriend and wishing he never grew up and turned out like that. 

“Are you sure?” he asked them, making sure to inject his voice with the right amount of skepticism. “That particular...ah, genre, might not be in line with your tastes.” 

That got the girls even more curious. 

“Is it violent?” 

“Do the forces of evil win?” 

“I’m sure we can handle it, Commander.”

Eli bit his lip, wondering if there was a way out of this. It shouldn’t be too difficult, of course, to tell them a standard Lysatran folktale that fit into the genre and quell their curiosity, but he had told them stories like that, except they weren’t classified as romances and rather as stories about loyalty, trust or the harvest season. Old couples that worked hard in tough times. People presenting tokens of affection to one another. Standard, safe, and definitely not going to cut it this time because they’d think he wasn’t telling them anything new. 

“There’s...one story I know of,” said Eli, before his brain could catch up with his mouth. 

Ki’sree slid off the couch and sat cross-legged on the floor, as did all the others, looking up at him in anticipation as they always did when he told them a story. 

Kriff, why had he said anything? 

He didn’t have a story. He really, really didn’t. The one at the forefront of his mind was entirely unsuitable to be voiced out loud, even to himself, so why had put himself in this situation? 

“Okay, ah…” Eli clasped his hands awkwardly over his knees. “So, romance is about...love. Like when someone loves another person. The story is about that...love. Mainly.” 

One of the girls looked disappointed. “There are no pirates?” 

Kah’shya always asked for pirates. Eli was halfway into worrying about the strange fascination. 

“Not usually, no. But there are pirates in this story.” 

Even as he spoke the words and visibly renewed everyone’s interest, Eli couldn’t quite believe he was doing this. There was something seriously wrong with him. He was glad Vah’nya wasn’t here to notice how red his face had become. 

“Are there Chiss in it?” asked Un’hee. 

“Yes. Um, of course. If you want.” Eli forced himself to smile brightly at everyone, like this was just another storytelling session. “Where do I start? Oh, right. So there was this, um, Chiss…” 

The girls settled into utmost attentiveness, dropping any other questions they’d planned on asking.

Eli cleared his throat. “This Chiss was a brave warrior. He was very strong, but also very good at heart, even though...few people noticed that about him. Point is, he cared deeply for his people, so one day he volunteered to embark on a dangerous mission.” 

Gods, he could hear the transparent lies in his own words. However he tried to spin this story, he couldn’t lie to himself. He knew what he was really talking about. 

“The mission...was to travel to a faraway place, where his people thought there was a threat. The Chiss survived on his own for a while, until one day he met an alien who...wandered into his territory.” 

“What was the alien?” asked Ki’sree. curiously. 

“Um,” said Eli, stupidly. 

“A human,” Ka’leen guessed, wisely. “If Commander Eli’van’to knows of this story, it is surely a human story. It would make sense if one of the characters were human.” 

“Yes,” said Eli, quickly. “Well done, Ka’leen. This is a human story, so there is a human in it.” 

“What happened to the human?” 

“The huma— oh. Yes. He accidentally wandered into the Chiss’s territory one day, and this Chiss, you see, he’d set a bunch of traps to keep intruders out. So when the human walked in, he was caught in one of the traps, and the Chiss came to investigate.” 

Eli folded his hands in his lap and forced himself to keep going. “He wondered if the human was a threat, and the human, in turn, was afraid of his captor. He’d never seen a Chiss before, so he didn’t know what to do in the situation. Fortunately, they both had a language in common, so they managed to clear the misunderstanding, and the entire time, the human was hanging upside-down in his snare.” 

The navigators giggled at the imagery. Eli suppressed a smile. 

“When the Chiss cut the human free, he apologised for the trouble, but the human was more than ready to forgive him. The Chiss realised the human would be a valuable resource of information, so he persuaded him to stay a while longer.” 

That wasn’t what happened at all, but Eli was doing his best to make the story sound as fictitious as possible. He was fairly confident they wouldn’t trace it back to its truth, but it helped not to leave too many clues. 

“Days passed, and the two of them would exchange information and learn new things from one another. The Chiss turned out to be right about what the human offered, and the human learned that his new companion was quite enjoyable to be around, so he didn’t mind being kept back. One day, the Chiss decided to tell the human about his true mission. He would be...leaving, the following day, on a dangerous journey, on a route that was full of smugglers and pirates.” 

Kah’shya beamed, a bright smile that split her youthful features. “I think I like romance stories.” 

Eli chortled. “Not all of them have pirates, Kah’shya,” he reminded good-naturedly. “The human didn’t want his new companion to leave on such a dangerous journey alone, but he really needed to return home, for he had work waiting for him.”

The navigators made a sound of disappointment in unison. 

“I know, I know. It’s a terrible excuse. But he liked his job, and it helped him make a living.” 

Eli shifted in seat, slightly uncomfortable with how close to reality his narration was veering, and racked his brain for some fantastical element to throw it back on course. 

“The Chiss did not understand this either. Who would turn down a life of adventure for a mundane job? He told the human that he had the potential to do greater things.” 

Some of the girls sighed almost dreamily. Well. He now had an idea of what the Chiss looked for in their romances. 

“And the human, he was...reluctant, but he told the Chiss that he trusted him, and agreed to join him on the journey.” 

Un’hee sniffled, surprising him. Her eyes were wide and worried. 

“Commander?”

“Yes, Un’hee?” 

“This story ends happily, right?” 

“Um.” Eli stiffened. He hadn’t worked out an ending. “Why don’t you wait and find out?” he offered in friendly compromise, giving her a little wink so she didn’t get nervous about that. 

“Okay,” whispered Un’hee, leaning closer to one of the older girls. “Go on.” 

Eli took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure of what he was doing anymore. Fantastical elements. He needed fantastical elements. 

“Their adventure was just as perilous as expected. Once, they even ran into a deep-space Krayt dragon, who had a wingspan the size of a light cruiser!” 

Ka’leen gasped. “Was their ship equipped to outrun the Krayt dragon?”

“They almost didn’t make it! It took a lot of expert piloting, and you know, they could’ve really used a navigator on that one.” 

“I would’ve helped them,” said Ki’sree seriously. 

“I would too,” offered Sha’na bravely. “They seem like honourable people.” 

Eli bit his lip, trying to fight back a decidedly giddy grin. He was getting too invested in this…retelling of events. He needed to get a hold of himself. 

“I am sure they would have greatly appreciated it,” he agreed. “Um, yeah, but that doesn’t even compare to the time they faced the Chiss’s mortal enemy.” 

“I wish I had a mortal enemy,” mumbled Kah’shya. 

“I’ll bet you do,” said Eli. “So, this guy, he was a dangerous...pirate. They had many names for him, for he never used the same name twice. But the Chiss always knew when he was responsible for something.”

His audience leaned forward with interest. 

“The two of them had been searching for this guy for months, because the galaxy was not a safe place so long as he retained his power. He was impossible to catch in the act. But one day, Th— the Chiss found an opening.” 

Eli’s cheeks turned red, realising just how close he’d come to name-dropping Thrawn. 

He had to stop. He was getting too absorbed in this fantasy. The story, in his head, was headed towards different directions far away from reality, spinning into a daydream he wished was the truth. It was dangerous. He was too close to crossing a line. 

But if the navigators had noticed his slip, they didn’t think much of it. 

“He found a tactical weakness,” translated Ka’leen with intrigue. 

“Well, yes.” Eli swallowed. “He did. He was a seasoned warrior, very good at spotting that kind of thing. So he asked the human to use it to his advantage, and infiltrate the pirate ship.” 

Kah’shya’s weren’t the only eyes that lit up in excitement. Now _this_, this at least was familiar territory; the girls loved hearing about missions, especially those of a clandestine nature, of which he and Thrawn had aplenty under their belts.

“The human got dressed in tattered clothes, very much like a pirate’s, and found his way discreetly into the ship. All the while, the Chiss watched very closely, because he could not afford for this plan to go wrong.” 

Eli tugged at his suddenly too-tight collar. And now he _really_ needed to throw in a Krayt dragon, because it was hitting too close. Much too close. 

“However, the plan was not to succeed, because the pirate lord expected him to try this, and the human not part of his crew was found in no time. The pirate brought him in for interrogation, and demanded to know how he could defeat the Chiss.

“But the human, he wouldn’t...uh, he wouldn’t answer that. Because it would mean betraying the Chiss, his closest companion. Who he was, uh, also in love with. This is a romance, remember.” 

The navigators nodded attentively. A few of them looked ready to murder the pirate in question. 

“So the pirate thought he would use the human as bait to lure in his enemy.”

Ki’sree actually hissed. 

Eli was grasping at straws and he knew it. He was dangerously close to crossing that line, not that the navigators were aware. Too many personal thoughts were bleeding into this story. 

“He circled around his prisoner, gloating, as all pirates tend to do, because he thought that by capturing the human he had foiled the Chiss’s plan, and that everything would play into his hands now.” 

He forced himself to hold the intense gazes of his young audience. He couldn’t let them down. 

“But the Chiss had foreseen the possibility. Of course he had a backup plan in place. The human dared to hope, because he trusted him. While the pirate was gloating, and the human was wasting away in the detention block, they heard a loud noise. All the ship’s alarms started to go off!”

Eli curled his fingers into claws theatrically. “There was a terrifying roar, of a mighty beast, and the pirate’s crew were fleeing for their lives!”

He bit back a small smile at the shocked expressions on the navigators’ faces. 

“The Chiss had unleashed the Krayt dragon on the pirate ship, destroying it far more effectively than turbolasers would. The pirate lord tried to flee in all the commotion but the dragon got him.” 

“And the human?” asked Un’hee, her voice cracking. “What happened to the human?” 

“The Chiss knew where the detention block was, so while the dragon kept the rest of the ship occupied, he boarded and started searching for him. They found each other in minutes, and the Chiss told his human that they had to get out of there as fast as possible.” 

Eli felt quite a bit better now, if he was being honest with himself; unleashing a Krayt dragon on an enemy ship was so far away from being Thrawn’s style that he could distract himself from the real events he was manipulating for this narration. Thrawn, implementing a plan so messy, even as a last resort...the idea made him want to laugh. 

“So they did, they left the burning pirate ship behind, and returned for their own. Once they were well out of harm’s way, the Chiss apologised for the sticky situation, but it didn’t matter, because they were both alive and unhurt.” 

“And then?” prompted Un’hee. 

“And then, uh…” Eli really hadn’t thought this through. “They lived happily ever after.” 

The girls groaned. 

“What?” he protested. 

“That’s _weak_.” Kah’shya poked him in the leg. “That can’t be the real ending, Commander Eli’van’to.” 

“It’s...the ending I’ve heard,” lied Eli lamely. 

There were several protests from his crowd of listeners. This was the first time that a story had disappointed them. What had they been expecting? They’d seemed to really enjoy the climax of the story, but then…

Yeah, no shit. All that buildup and absolutely nothing happened in the end. 

He had an inkling as to how _that_ felt. 

“Okay,” he relented, raising his palms. “I’ll make up a better ending, is that alright?” 

The navigators’ faces sparked with renewed interest. 

“He said it didn’t matter, because they were both alive and unhurt. Then he told the Chiss that he always believed he would come through, because he held him to such a degree of trust.” 

A collection of happy sighs. Eli pressed forward, knowing it wasn’t enough just yet.

“And the Chiss? The Chiss looked him right in the eye and said, um, ‘_I will always come through for you. You have given me...a fresh perspective of the galaxy, and I am fortunate to have you by my side.’_”

The navigators melted. A few huddled close as they waited for what they expected to be a most satisfying conclusion. 

“He told the human that he loved him, and would like to spend the rest of their days on adventures like this, taking down dangerous pirates and immoral smuggling operations.”

Yeah, that was definitely what Chiss looked for in a good love story. 

“And then they kissed.” 

Eli snapped out of the dreamy haze he’d been falling into when he noticed the navigators scrunch their noses in distaste, or wince slightly. 

“What?” 

“Don’t tell us about the kissing part,” said Ka’leen. 

Eli rolled his eyes. _Of course_. Kids everywhere shared the same opinion on that. 

“There’s a kiss in every romance story, Ka’leen.” 

“_Every one?_”

“Every single one.” 

“Now I understand why you were hesitant to tell us this story.” 

“Thank you,” said Eli, somewhat pointedly. “Okay, let’s forget the kiss happened.” 

“The Chiss must invite him to join his House,” said Sha’na, nodding at her own assessment. “There is no greater honour.” 

Eli frowned, the casual statement so baffling he forgot his mortification for a minute. “But he’s human.” 

“And the Chiss is a warrior who has done a great service to the Ascendancy. He should be permitted to take the human’s hand in marriage, once the human has proven himself to the Ruling Houses.” 

If Eli had been drinking anything, now would be the moment he choked fatally. “_What?_”

Sha’na shrugged nonchalantly. “It is true. The Aristroca sometimes grants special privileges to Chiss who have done a great service.” 

Eli could feel his face heating up, for probably the tenth time in the same sitting, except this time the navigators could very well catch on as to why. He’d explained to them that human faces glowed in the infrared for various reasons, but nothing save for outright embarrassment seemed a valid reason at the moment. 

“Alright, that’s enough,” said Eli, as diplomatically as possible. “I’m not going to alter a classic Wild Space story beyond a certain point. I mean, obviously, whoever who started telling the story first didn’t know about the Aristroca, so it’s excusable, right?” 

“I hadn’t thought of that,” admitted Sha’na. 

Eli made a show of checking his chrono. Really, he wanted to be out of here before any of the navigators asked him why he appeared so riled up today. “You got your story, guys. I have to head back out now, there’s a report I need to write—”

The room filled with cries of dismay. 

He grinned sheepishly. “Duty calls.” 

“Not yet!” Un’hee sprang to her feet and demandingly held her arms out at him. “Hugs first.” 

“Hugs first,” conceded Eli, something light and warm touching his chest as the youngest of the navigators dutifully lined up behind Un’hee. 

Yeah, Ar’alani was not going to take it kindly if she learnt that he’d taught them what hugs were. She’d barely kept her temper in check when she caught a group of them playing _The Floor is Mustafar._

He had no regrets so far. He hoped this dumb story wouldn’t be his first. 

Eli hadn’t looked up from his numbers for an entire two hours when he heard the buzzer at his door go off. He checked the security feeds before allowing himself a small smile and remotely opening the door. 

Vah’nya ceremoniously placed a mug of caf— the Chiss equivalent of it, which somehow managed to be even worse than human caf— on his desk. She only brought him caf on days she was especially pleased with him, or when she had something to mercilessly tease him about. 

Eli’s stomach sank. He had a pretty good idea which it was going to be today. 

“So, deep-space Krayt dragon, am I right?” 

He groaned, hoping this conversation wasn’t already unsalvageable. “What? You need elements of surprise to keep them entertained.” 

Vah’nya pursed her lips in contemplation, though really, she was trying not to smile, and he was done for. 

“Don’t think you can get away so easily, Commander Vanto. You’ve told me about Mitth’raw’nuruodo’s last operation taking down Nightswan. The _real_ version of it.” 

Eli sighed, turning off his screen. “Do we really have to talk about this?” 

“I don’t know,” Vah’nya almost smirked. She was easily the most expressive adult Chiss he had come across. “Was _Mitth’raw’nuruodo_ your first thought when the navigators asked for a romantic story?” 

Eli snagged the mug of caf, aggressively sipping at the bitter liquid until he could formulate a response in his head. 

“That’s not what happened. I didn’t know any stories, so I warped an experience I was familiar with. It has nothing to do with Thrawn or even myself.” 

Vah’nya sighed. “Do you really intend to sell that lie?” 

“Not a lie.” 

“Sure. I can see in the infrared.”

Eli drank more of the caf, wishing briefly that it was alcohol. “Don’t overthink this, Vah’nya. I have no such feelings for him.” 

“Sure,” shrugged the Chiss, in the most remarkably unconvinced tone possible. “I will take your word for it.” 

She most certainly wasn't going to. Eli knew that he'd hear about this until the end of his days. 

"Hey." She clipped him lightly on the shoulder. "Your paths will cross again, Commander Vanto." 

Eli exhaled steadily, pulling himself together. Vah'nya meant well; above all, she was a good friend, and he trusted her. 

Trusted her not to make baseless promises, as well.

"I will take your word for it, Navigator Vah'nya."

  
  



End file.
